The Rhinos made it two victories in a row against Hull KR as St Helens held out against the Salford Red Devils in a yellow card-filled game; Catalans Dragons dominated on home turf to get back to winning ways against Castleford Tigers
Saturday 30 April 2022 00:01, UK
We take a look through all of Friday's Round 11 Super League action, with Leeds Rhinos, St Helens and Catalans Dragons coming away with victories...
Lachlan Coote's hopes of featuring in next week's Challenge Cup semi-final are hanging by a thread after being forced off with a head injury as Hull KR were left to the count the cost of a disastrous 12-0 defeat at Leeds.
The Robins went into the game looking to set a new club record of seven straight Super League wins but suffered a shock defeat to the Rhinos, tries from Matt Prior and Morgan Gannon earned the injury-ravaged hosts their second successive victory.
Hull KR had a difficult start and moments after centre Ben Crooks gave away a penalty in centre-field, the same player fluffed Blake Austin's grubber kick to let Prior in to tumble over the line.
With Rhyse Martin's conversion, Leeds had established an early advantage that they would retain for the remainder of the first half.
Despite having some promising chances to score through Ryan Hall, Hull KR once again fell foul to the Rhinos as Gannon capitalised on Rovers' hesitation in gathering a grubber kick to let the second row in for the home side's second try.
Leeds continued to capitalise off some Rovers indiscipline, and when Parcell went high on Broadbent, Martin kicked two to extend the home side's lead to 12-0 just before the hour mark to secure the win.
St Helens bounced back from defeat to Castleford last week to claim a hard-fought 14-10 victory over Salford Red Devils but a first-half injury to Jonny Lomax took some of the shine off the win after he left the field on the 27th minute.
Saints also had to overcome a double sin-binning for Jack Welsby while Mark Percival was also yellow-carded at the Totally Wicked Stadium as they were made to dig deep for the win.
Two penalties from Tommy Makinson in the final 12 minutes got Saints home as they found a patched-up Salford side to be stubborn opposition. The hosts were also indebted to a superb tackle from Morgan Knowles when, with time almost up, he denied Chris Atkin after he had stolen the ball and raced for the corner.
The Red Devils got off to a promising start through Morgan Escare on the 18th minute, taking a pass from Brodie Croft and the conversion from Atkin gave Salford a 6-0 lead after 18 minutes.
The home side hit back six minutes later as Welsby's one-handed pass got centre Ben Davies in at the corner following strong runs from Roby and Walmsley, although Makinson was unable to add the extras.
Saints then took the lead in the 28th minute. Joey Lussick's short kick was spilled by Escare and Welsby was on hand to pick up the loose ball and score. Makinson's conversion made it 10-6 to the home side at half-time.
The Red Devils managed to draw level on the hour mark through Matty Costello in the corner but Atkins couldn't find the conversion.
Both teams were reduced to 12 men two minutes later. A high shot by Percival on Ken Sio saw the Saints centre sent to the sin-bin along with Salford's Amir Bourouh for his involvement in the fracas which followed.
Saints edged ahead again with 12 minutes remaining after a high shot on Matty Lees was penalised and Makinson kicked the goal from almost 40 metres out. He repeated the feat soon after to open a four-point lead.
But still Salford would not lie down and with the final play of the game, Atkin stole the ball and raced for the corner only for Knowles to race back and deny him. As Saints scrambled back, Welsby was penalised for lying on the ball and received his second yellow card of the night.
Catalans Dragons got back to winning ways in Super League with an emphatic victory over Castleford in Perpignan.
A man-of-the-match display by scrum-half Tyrone May and a hat-trick of tries for France international Matthieu Laguerre helped the Dragons respond after last week's defeat at Hull FC.
May was at the heart of everything, stepping in for the injured Josh Drinkwater and combining brilliantly with his fellow Australian Mitchell Pearce at stand-off.
Julian Bousquet opened the scoring for the hosts, with Pearce, May, Arthur Morgue - who also kicked six conversions - and Matt Whitley crossing to secure a convincing victory.
Jason Qareqare's second try in as many games, and a try and two conversions from Gareth O'Brien accounted for Castleford's tally.
